Anthony Gruppuso/US PresswireFormer Knick Shawne Williams defends Cavaliers guard J.J. Hickson in a game last season. Williams, who signed with the Nets Thursday, won't play in the preseason opener vs. the Knicks today.

"It’s a preseason game, but guys are going to be excited about running up and down the floor, doing what they love to do," Johnson said. "I want us to play hard; I want us to run hard. We were a team that didn’t get any easy baskets in transition... I’d like to see our point guards try to go coast-to-coast, and just make plays; I’d like to see us create some more turnovers.

"We have a lot of areas we want to improve on… from an offensive standpoint, we had about 100 plays last year – we probably only ran three or four well,'' he continued. "So hopefully we can run more of our offense a little better this year. Having Deron (Williams), that’s going to help us out."